Eve Of The War
Eve of the War is the first episode of the fourth series of Being Human which was first broadcast on 5th February 2012. It marks the final appearance of George and the introduction to new series regular; Hal, although he doesn't interact with the other characters until the next episode. Plot In the nightmare future of 2037, the world has been virtually overrun by vampires. The young woman leading the last resistance cell despairs at hearing of the fall of New York. In the present Annie and George look after George's baby after Nina has been murdered by vampires. George has become a virtual hermit, barricaded with his daughter into a nursery covered in crucifixes, and constantly armed with a stake. He refuses to give his daughter a name, saying that he would just picture any name engraved on her tombstone. Tom, still living in McNair's old camper van, is working in a local cafe, and still killing vampires whenever he can. When a bullied young vampire named Dewi appears in the cafe, Tom gets the information as to where the vampires are based - an import/export business on the docks, named Stoker's. He manages to motivate George to join him in an attack on the place on the night of the full moon, much to Annie's disapproval. It transpires that they have been tricked by a vampire called Cutler, as part of his agenda to mount apropaganda war using werewolves as stooges. Finding no vampires at the location they were led to, George and Tom transform, unaware they are being filmed from outside by Cutler. Back at Honolulu Heights, a well-meaning social worker and a policeman called Fergus break into the house, having been notified of an unattended child. Annie, invisible to the social worker, is unable to stop them taking the baby - but Fergus is a vampire, and is taking the child to their base on the orders of their leader, a vampire Old One, Griffin. The rest of the Old Ones are on their way, and Griffin wants to present them with this unique child as a tribute. When the full moon rises, it becomes clear that, despite her parentage the child is fully human with no werewolf traits. Disappointed, Griffin orders her to be killed. But vampire archivist Regus stalls him, having found a prophecy (etched on human skin) that she will save the world from his kind. Regus claims that the baby must die according to a complex ritual, to which Griffin grudgingly accedes. Deprived of his tribute, Griffin lures George to Stoker's as a new gift for the Old Ones. George, aware of his daughter's plight, goes willingly. While Tom and Annie stage a rescue, George becomes aware that the ritual to kill his daughter is in progress, and tricks his body into a halfway house transformation between man and wolf. Empowered, he is able to break out of his cage, killing Griffin with his blood while Tom and Annie take care of most of the other vampires. In the confusion, Regus manages to slip the baby to Annie, telling her that the child must live to stop the vampires. George, unable to recover from his mangled transformation, dies with the child in his arms, with his last breath giving her a name - Eve. Meanwhile, in Southend, a ghost called Pearl, elderly werewolf Leo and young vampire Hal are sharing a house just as Mitchell, George and Annie once did. And in the future, the young woman commanding the resistance orders a soldier to kill her. Stepping through a Door into Purgatory, she announces that only one thing can save humanity - she has to kill the baby. Introducing *Hal Yorke (Damien Molony) - the new vampire lead. Hal does not meet the rest of the regular cast until the next episode. *Nick Cutler (Andrew Gower) - a young-looking vampire with a modern outlook, who sees multimedia communication as the way forward and disparages traditional vampire tactics of violence. Cutler is a recurring antagonist, but not the series' main antagonist. *Fergus (Anthony Flanagan) - a brutal vampire, working in the Barry police service. More traditional than Cutler, Fergus survives the vampire slaughter at Stoker's to kill another day. *Regus (Mark Williams) - the so-called Vampire Recorder, a slightly pathetic vampire whose function of archivist is treated with contempt by the others. Goodbye to *George, sacrificing his life to save his daughter. *Nina (not seen onscreen) who was beaten to death by vampires before the events of this episode. Trivia *The episode title, Eve of the War, is a reference to the first track of Jeff Wayne's cult 1978 musical version of War of the Worlds. *The line heard on the radio - "the Earth belongs to the vampires" - also refers to that album. The last line on the first disc of the two disc album is "the Earth belonged to the Martians". *According to Toby Whithouse, the original intention was for that line to have been delivered by Hal. But after casting Damien Molony, Whithouse thought that his voice would be too distinctive, and it would give the later plot away. *This is the first time we see vampires consuming preserved blood - there is a fridge full of it at Stoker's, which Cutler goes straight for on entering. This seems to contradict Mitchell's earlier assertion to Lauren that preserved blood "just doesn't work", which she verified by trying a blood bag, unless the blood at Stoker's was extremely fresh. the fact they have humans in cages seems to coroberrate this. *Stoker's, the name of the import/export business serving as a front for the vampires' base, is presumably a reference to Bram Stoker, the author of Dracula. *This episode establishes that werewolf blood is toxic to vampires. Drinking it will kill them, as with Griffin, but even being touched by it will burn them. This being the case, they seem to have been remarkably slipshod at dealing with werewolves in the past - presumably blood could splash anywhere at one of the dogfights. *It is also established that vampires can have their hair cut, as Leo does with Hal. This does beg the question of whether they actually need to, and if so, how they explain to regular barbers that they cannot be seen in mirrors. Music Aside from Richard Wells' original score, this episode features the following songs: *''Unorthodox'', by Wretch 32 featuring Example, from the album Black and White (2011) - playing in the cafe as Tom sees the car full of vampires draw up outside *''The Future's So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades'', by Timbuk3, from the album Greetings from Timbuk3 (1986) - playing on the soundtrack as Cutler walks into Stoker's *''The Red Rooster'', by Howlin' Wolf (1961 single) - playing on Leo's radio at the barber's as he cuts Hal's hair Category:BBC Episodes Category:Episodes Category:Series Premieres Category:Series 4 Category:Being Human BBC